


Keep Your Heart and It’s Bound

by ej_writer



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Gift Giving, Harringrove Heart-On, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Stranger Things 3, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29412978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ej_writer/pseuds/ej_writer
Summary: Steve gets a surprise on Valentine’s Day.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39
Collections: Harringrove Heart-On (2021)





	Keep Your Heart and It’s Bound

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentines Day all!! So excited to participate in all these cool events in this amazing fandom on my favorite holiday!! It’s really been such a treat! You can read this on tumblr too @thehairingrove !

Steve would have never dreamt in a million years that he would ever be the type to get married. 

Time and time and time again he’d had his heart and his soul ripped out, by ex-girlfriends, by absent parents, by tragedy striking over and over in his life in any form it could show itself. He just never thought he would still have the room in his heart to love after it all passes. 

But Billy Hargrove proves him wrong. Steals that broken heart of his away with every grin and bear it smile, fighting through his recovery like a champ until he’s ready to be discharged, and they’re moving in together. 

Until Billy’s tying ribbons around the cracks in his wounded heart, slowly repairing all the hurt he still held there after so long with his skewed idea of what care should be, until there was no room left for the pain. Until there was nothing left but pure. unchecked love, adoration. 

They're content with what they have, living out of a run down-ish apartment a few towns over from Hawkins so they could still be close to family, but far enough away from the place they’d almost lost their chance to have this life. 

Steve gets a steady job at the café downtown to support them until he can get into college. Getting in is not so much about the grades anymore as it is about just making sure he’s around for Billy. 

It makes them enough money to keep them on their feet, and that’s all they needed while they settled. This apartment wouldn’t be a permanent solution anyways, just where they would be staying until they were ready to leave back home to California. Because for Billy, the biggest thing they had to work about for now was just him getting better. 

At first, while they’re still adjusting to domestic life on their own, they don’t really celebrate much but milestones. Holidays are swept under the rug in favor of appreciating things like the first time Billy walks across the living room without a cane, and Steve’s first night without having any nightmares. 

But once they’ve had another few years there, they start getting a little better at incorporating both. 

Valentine's Day of 1990 is the first time they put up any decorations in their apartment, just a few window stickers and tacky wall hangings from the dollar store, but it feels special. 

Especially because Valentine’s fell right between Steve’s birthday in early February and their anniversary towards the end of the month, it usually wasn’t even something they would bother with acknowledging. But this year, he wants to get Billy something. 

He’s really not expecting anything in return, just wants to give him a gimmicky little stuffed toy that catches his eye while he’s out at the store, just to see his reaction, but Billy actually beats him to it. 

He’d just woken up himself and started making breakfast for the two of them, when Billy shuffled into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Steve’s waist, resting his chin on his shoulder. He was not a morning person by any means, grumbling something unintelligible into Steve’s hair. 

Steve chuckles, tilts his head back and kisses Billy’s cheek. “G'morning to you too, Bills.” 

“Got a present for ya.” Billy says, still all groggy with sleep. 

“Did you?” 

“Mhm.” With one arm still wrapped around Steve’s torso, he reaches into the pocket of his baja hoodie and produces a red velvet box. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Steve.”

A velvet box just like the ones that came from a jewelry store. Steve feels his heart skip a beat, out of anticipation, “I-Is that-“ 

Billy nods, sounding out of breath when he asks, “Will you marry me? Close as we can get to it at least.” 

Steve turns in his arms so they're facing each other completely, presses a whole bunch of kisses to Billy’s lips. “Of course I will.” 

Both of them have shaky hands trying to get the ring onto Steve’s finger, a beautiful gold band as thick as two of his mother’s dainty rings put together, with a blue circle cut stone in the center. It stands out against his pale skin, catches the light that’s coming in from the windows in just the right ways. He wants to cry seeing it on his finger, an actual engagement ring. 

It wasn’t like he’d ever seen it depicted on the big screen, getting engaged. There’s no dramatically dropping down on one knee, though that could have been because Billy wouldn’t have been able to get back up if he did, and there are no moments wasted pondering the question for dramatic emphasis. It doesn’t feel like some perfectly practiced movie moment. 

Instead, it feels real and like them and like the happiest moment of Steve’s twenty-four years on the planet earth. 

There was still the matter of Steve’s own gift. After what just happened, handing over the stuffed dog seemed like a silly idea, and he admits it, “I feel kind of dumb giving this to you now.” 

“Nothing dumb about it. You know I’ll use it.” He would too. Sometimes Billy would panic after bad dreams and didn’t want Steve to touch him, so they had a couple of childhood teddy bears and the like around to help with that, so truly, he would. But then he sweetens the deal even more, says, “Besides, it’s your first gift to me as my fiancé.” 

“Your fiancé.” Steve repeats, a flush appearing to his cheeks because the title gets to him. He’s used to being Billy’s pretty boy, his baby, his lover, his any other nickname under the sun that Billy might come up with, but fiancé, that’s something else entirely. He finds himself overwhelmed with the urge to say, “I love you.” 

Billy smiles bright, takes his hand in his and brushes his thumb across the ring on Steve’s finger. “Love you too, Stevie.” 

It wasn't entirely a surprise that Billy proposed. They’d talked about it a lot when they still weren’t sure of just how many years Billy would have left after his injuries, but now that the doctors were sure his heart wouldn’t be giving out any time soon, Steve had thought that this would be a way down the line thing. 

The wedding definitely wouldn’t be for a long time, if ever it even happens, but Steve’s just happy that he can say Billy, the only person who’s been there for him 100% of the time, who he’s got to witness overcome so much, the man he’s proud of and falls in love with just a little more every single day, is the one who he’ll spend the rest of his life with. 

He couldn’t think of anything he would want to be different, in that moment. 

Sure, it was true that he’d maybe like to have a little more money to get himself educated, get Billy some better treatments and a better space to recover in, and that he’d rather them be in California instead of Indiana, where Billy still called home after so many years, and where they might have the liberty to do something about upgrading that beautiful ring on his finger to a wedding band, but he wouldn’t exchange that for what he had now. 

Because they were happy, after everything, and Steve had finally found himself somebody who loved him unconditionally, even without those other things.


End file.
